Lines
That time is dead for ever, child!Drowned, frozen, dead for ever!We look on the pastAnd stare aghastAt the spectres wailing, pale and ghast,Of hopes which thou and I beguiledTo death on life's dark river.
The stream we gazed on then rolled by;Its waves are unreturning;But we yet standIn a lone land,Like tombs to mark the memoryOf hopes and fears, which fade and fleeIn the light of life's dim morning.
Words in this poem
- ghast v. t.
- To strike aghast; to affright. [OE. gasten. See Ghastly, a.]
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lines is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #4798; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lines, in Ode to the West Wind, and Other Poems (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/lines-2.html, id L16319.
Form and metre
Lines is 14 lines in 2 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-BBBA- childA · ever · pastB · aghastB · ghastB · beguiledA · river
- 2 --AA--- by · unreturning · standA · landA · memory · flee · morning
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| That time is dead for ever, child! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Drowned, frozen, dead for ever! | 8 | ·˘/˘··/˘ |
| We look on the past | 5 | ····· |
| And stare aghast | 4 | ··˘/ |
| At the spectres wailing, pale and ghast, | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| Of hopes which thou and I beguiled | 8 | ······˘/ |
| To death on life's dark river. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The stream we gazed on then rolled by; | 8 | ········ |
| Its waves are unreturning; | 7 | ······· |
| But we yet stand | 4 | ···· |
| In a lone land, | 4 | ···· |
| Like tombs to mark the memory | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Of hopes and fears, which fade and flee | 8 | ········ |
| In the light of life's dim morning. | 8 | ······/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.